Type: Deciduous Hardwood
Family: Ginkgoaceae
Native Range: Southern China
Zone: 3 to 8
Height: 50 to 80 feet
Spread: 30 to 40 feet
Bloom Time: April
Bloom Description: Green
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Leaf: Two-lobed, somewhat leathery, fan-shaped, rich green leaves.
Attracts:
Fruit: Fleshy, fruit-like coverings
Other: Good Fall color
Tolerate: Deer, Clay Soil, Air Pollution
Virginia Tech's Ginkgo video presentation
Ginkgos are dioecious (separate male and female trees). Nurseries typically sell
only male trees (fruitless), because female trees produce seeds encased in fleshy,
fruit-like coverings which, at maturity in autumn, are messy and emit a noxious,
foul odor upon falling to the ground and splitting open.
Gingko, also known as the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the
division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is found in fossils dating
back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is widely cultivated, and
was cultivated early in human history. It has various uses in traditional
medicine and as a source of food.
Ginkgos are popular subjects for growing as bonsai; they can be kept artificially
small and tended over centuries. Furthermore, the trees are easy to propagate
from seed.
The first use as a medicine is recorded in the late 15th century in China;
among western countries, its first registered medicinal use was in Germany in
1965. Despite use, controlled studies do not support the extract's efficacy for
most of the indicated conditions.
Extreme examples of the ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan,
where six trees growing between0.62–1.24 miles from the 1945 atom bomb explosion
were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast. Although
almost all other plants (and animals) in the area were killed, the ginkgos,
though charred, survived and were soon healthy again, among other hibakujumoku
(trees that survived the blast). The six trees are still alive.
Further information:
Virginia Tech Dendrology
Missouri Botanical Garden